


Mechanical Difficulties

by ArtemisVictor



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Robotics Team, Dumbasses, FIRST Robotics Competition - Freeform, FRC, Gen, Improper use of angle grinder, Lack of safety glasses, No Beta, Robotics, Robotics lingo, We Die Like Men, With my robotics team AU that no one asked for, but you're getting anyway, heavy au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23089411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisVictor/pseuds/ArtemisVictor
Summary: Rodimus is named captain of his high school robotics team. A robotics team with a very bad record. How will he brave the world of robotics? How will he deal with the immense foolishness of his team? He doesn't know and neither do I!(Human Robotics team AU)
Relationships: Chromedome/Rewind (Transformers), Cyclonus/Tailgate (Transformers)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	1. New Season! Same Fools!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, yall. Welcome to the robotics team AU that has never been written. I thought of it on my way back from the first competition of the season. Hope you guys enjoy!

So, he inherited the team. It was a good team, Rodimus admitted, but he knew jack shit about running a robotics team. Sure, he could explain the differences between Falcons and Neos. Sure, he could find a missing semicolon. He could absolutely guilt trip some poor business into giving the team money. He completely understood why he was made team captain. But, he also didn’t understand why. His favorite pastime was turning the robot into a smoke machine. Honestly, Magnus should have been made captain. He was already the lead electrician. He handled the team’s finances, filled out their bill of materials, and even gave the Chairman’s Presentation. He was the perfect candidate, but they voted for Rodimus instead.

The classroom was filled to the brim with robotics members. Nearly everyone was there. Cyclonus showed up after his color guard rehearsal. Nautica came after fixing her car for the fiftieth time. Swerve showed up after detention for pranking a teacher. The only person who wasn’t there was their main driver, Whirl.

“Okay team! Welcome to the first meeting of the year. Last season was rough, to say the least.” Rodimus began the meeting. 

“Our bot caught on fire in the middle of the field.” Perceptor grumbled as he held up his phone. A slideshow of disastrous robot fails was playing on it.

“But we weren’t the last ranked team! Who knew Triple M could have sucked that badly? But good ole’ Team 113,pulled through and got picked by an alliance. Lost Light pulled through.” Rodimus continued, trying to inspire confidence in the team.

“We lost to Team Monstructor. You know, the robot that was built out of literal wood and held together with zip ties and duct tape.” Skids mumbled and looked down at the ground. It was a loss that shouldn’t have happened.

Rodimus waved his hands in the air, “Alright! Alright, I get it. We suck. We built a bad robot that had bad programming and that performed badly. That was last year, what are we going to do this year?”

Rewind raised his hand, “We’re going to suck even more?”

“What?! Now we’re going to- Wait, are you recording this?” Rodimus asked, his smile faltering. He finally noticed the blinking recording device on the table.

“Absolutely. I’m the media guy. It’s kind of my entire role on the team. What do you expect me to do? Take notes and be a functional member of the team? Be real.” Rewind retorted. Just to be an ass, he picked up his camcorder and aimed it right at Rodimus.

“You know what? Forget it. We are going to do good this year and we are going to win! Who’s with me?” Rodimus exclaimed, his smile bigger than ever.

There were a few “Oh absolutely”’s and a few “Yeah right”’s. Drift gave a light round of applause. He was trying. Rodimus was really trying. It’s not his fault he inherited a team that won nothing in the 8 years they had been active. It’s not his fault all the mentors left with the seniors. It’s not his fault-

“What the absolute FUCK is wrong with you people?” Ratchet shouted from the shop. Oh no, what were the mechanical fools doing now.

“Uh, we’ll continue this later. It sounds like Ratchet is ready to kill someone with safety glasses.” Rodimus stated as he bolted out of the room and into the shop. The first thing he noticed was the smoke. The second thing he noticed was Brainstorm running away with an angle grinder.

“Rodimus, I can’t do this anymore. This group is hopeless. First they don’t have a battery acid spill kit. Then they don’t wear safety glasses at all. Swerve nearly lost an eye because he was cutting some aluminum on the bandsaw and didn’t wear his safety glasses. And now this shit! I thought you guys were smart STEM students.” Ratchet berated them. To be fair, he was absolutely right. The word “safety” was not in Mechanical’s dictionary.

“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down Ratchet. What exactly did they do?” Rodimus asked. He recalled Brainstorm and the angle grinder and his expectations dropped beneath the floor.

“I’ll tell you what these fools did! Brainstorm was grinding down burs on some freshly cut aluminum, as you are supposed to do to be safe. But this dumbass thought it was a bright idea to do it right near our battery supply. You know what that means? Grinding sparks on batteries.” Ratchet concluded. The rest of the mechanical team looked nonchalant. Just another day in the shop with the “Grinding Sparks on Batteries Gang.”

“Come on Ratchet, it’s not that bad. We had our safety glasses on!” Nautica added to help their case. Technically she was mechanical lead and technically she should have stopped this. But she didn’t because she wanted to see what happened.

“Rodimus, please, help. I’m surrounded by idiots who don’t know basic safety.” Ratchet begged. He was tired of this bullshit. He didn’t have enough energy drinks to deal with it.

“Hey, we know basic safety! I always wear my safety glasses.” Swerve said proudly while pointing to them.

“Not true. Also, you tried to touch a live wire because, and I quote, ‘You wanted to see what it felt like.’” Ratchet shot back. He secretly wished that he was electrocuted so he didn’t have to deal with dumbasses on the daily.

“You know what? Ratchet’s in charge of here for now until you guys know how to behave. I have to get back to the rest of the team before all hell breaks loose. Good luck!” With a quick wave he dashed out of the door, right before the yelling started. He looked back in the classroom where they were meeting. Hell had broken loose.

Whirl was there and late, like usual. He was currently standing on a chair and was surrounded by nearly everyone else. They were all chanting, “Praise the Driver! Praise the Driver!” Rodimus regretted everything that led up to this moment.

“What the hell is going on in here?!” Rodimus shouted in an attempt to be heard.

“Oh, you know, robotics stuff.” Skids stated before returning to chanting. Somehow, they had gotten louder. Then, they all stopped at once. Something was up. Footsteps were approaching the door. Soon enough, someone was knocking at the door. No one moved to get it. They were simultaneously afraid of who would intrude in their club, but also at the same time overwhelmed by social anxiety. Rodimus, exasperated, pushed past everyone to answer the door. When he opened it, he got even more tired.

“Uh, hello? Is this the room of Team 113, Lost Light? I was told the club was open and accepting people.” The guy at the door asked. 

“Why the hell are you here? You know we hate you.” Rodimus stated. The whole room went silent. Everyone was trying to eavesdrop.

“I was told that there was a robotics team at this school, and I wanted to join it. You know I just transferred here and was on my old school’s team. I thought I would give you guys a try.” He attempted to explain.

“Except that you were one of the main members on your team. A team that, by the way, completely humiliated our team.” Rodimus argued.

“Please, you guys don’t need any help humiliating yourselves. And what happened to gracious professionalism? I thought everyone was invited to robotics.” The guy stated.

“You know, he is right, Rodimus.” Ultra Magnus confirmed.

“Oh, shut up you rules-slut. And back to the elephant in the room. How did you know where we were and who even invited you?” Rodimus demanded. He wanted to know why he was here and wanting to supposedly join the team.

“Well, the one you demean as ‘rules-slut’ invited me. I do have friends outside of my old school, you know.” He explained.

“Magnus! You filthy traitor! Consorting with the enemy.” Rodimus shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at him. Ultra Magnus just shrugged. He knew that he would never hear the end of it, so why intervene now?

“You know what? I can’t deal with this shit today. Goodbye and come back never.” Rodimus slammed the door. Everyone was still. The only movement was the blinking light on Rewind’s camcorder. 

“You know, Rodimus, that wasn’t very GP of you,” Tailgate spoke up.

“Yeah, you may hate the guy, but the team can genuinely not get worse.” Cyclonus added.

“Fine. Fine! You guys want the person who used to hate our team and probably still does? Fine!” Rodimus shouted as he swung the door open. The person was still standing there, anticipating an answer.

“Okay, you’re on the team.” Rodimus said as he let the person in. “Everyone! Say hello to your new teammate, Megatron.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you guys have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to just comment! See you on the flip side!


	2. Do you even Cotton Eye Joe??

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spirit team inducts Megatron into the team via line dance, Chromedome goes feral over being the only semi-competent programmer on the team, and a short guide on how to burn out every single motor on a drive train.  
> (11 weeks until the first competition)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back on my bullshit! The only excuse I can provide is that robotics was cancelled the week of one of our competitions and I just lost all motivation to do anything and became near non-functional. But I'm back and feeling alive!!! Before we dive into an obscure sport that is poorly explained via fanfiction, huge shout out to bajabastard for giving me the motivation to keep writing.

It was at that moment Ratchet walked into the room. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You have got to be kidding me. First the clowns in the back and now Megatron’s here. You know how close I am to snapping?” He demanded. He held up his hands to show how far.

“Uh, Ratchet, your fingers are touching.” Drift pointed out.

“Exactly! You know what? I can’t deal with this now. I’m going to the shop to work on the drive train. Don’t come in.” Ratchet looked around the room. Everyone was staring at him in a weird fear. “Uh, carry on with what you were doing.” He stated as he slowly slipped back into the shop. He still slammed the door behind him.

“Anyway! We have a new member. Everyone, treat him just like a new member. Exactly like a new member. I have some, hmm, finances to do! That sounds like a very leadershippy thing to do.” Rodimus tried slipping out of the door.

“But, Rodimus, I usually do those. I always do those. Also, we don't have any money for you to manage.” Magnus tried to say.

“For the love of- please, Magnus, just let me escape whatever hell is about to break loose.” he pleaded. He looked around the room and saw Tailgate pulling out his speaker. “Okay guys! Have fun with our new member. Bye!” He sprinted out of the room and into the hallway.

“Being the team Spirit lead, it is my job to induct the new member. Rewind, go to the shop and get everyone in here. We all need to witness this.” Tailgate ordered.

“Absolutely.” Rewind stated as he ran to the shop. “Hey! Everyone get your asses in here, we’re about to see an induction. I hope you packed your dancing shoes.”

The mechanical team trudged into the main meeting room, looking like ready to die. Ratchet was muttering to himself about lead wheels and toxicity. Someone had undoubtedly suggested something stupid and Ratchet was in the middle of giving them hell for it.

"Someone called for a circus, and we have arrived!" Swerve announced as he presented the Mechanical team. If you looked closely enough, you could see cracks and pieces of metal in his safety glasses.

"I heard dancing. Macarena or Cha Cha slide?" Nautica inquired as she tossed her toolbelt into the Random Pile of Stuff™ that was occupying the southernmost corner of the room.

"Something even better than that. The one song that unites most of us and distresses anyone who tries to do something functional. That's right, folks. It's time for Cotton Eyed Joe." Tailgate cheerfully announced as he attempted to use the Bluetooth function on his phone. He gave up and just plugged in an aux cord. There was some grumbling as Whirl and a few of the other drive team members left the room with a spare drive train and drive station in tow. Some of the others might have been worried by this, but Perceptor was with them, so there was at least one braincell in control of the test robot.

Nautica immediately bounded to the front of the classroom and took position next to Tailgate. Everyone started lining up next to them. Well, everyone except Megatron. He stared at them quizzically and asked, "What is Cotton Eye Joe? I've never heard of it."

The theoretical jazz music stopped. Everyone gaped at him in horror. "You- you are in robotics and you have never heard of Cotton Eye Joe? How is that possible? Have you never been to a competition?" Magnus inquired, his voice full of genuine concern.

He looked down at the table and picked at some stray splinters in the table. "No. I never have. I've never been allowed to," he shook his head sadly, "All I got to do to was watch them from school and send my team the strategy for upcoming matches."

"That's terrible! Come up here with us and learn a key part of FRC culture that you missed out on." Nautica gestured for him to join them. Megatron hesitantly got up and made his way to the front of the room.

"Alright guys. On a count of three. One, two, three. Now!" Tailgate said as he started up the song. It was strange song that seemed like a mix of bluegrass and techno.

"So here's how you do it. You take your right foot and tap it in front of you twice. Then behind you twice. Tap it to the side and bring your right heel to your hip in front of your body. Tap it to the side and to the same motion but behind your body. Sidestep three times. Clap! Twirl around to the left and swing your right arm like a lasso. You should end up where you started! Just keep copying me!" Nautica explained breathlessly as she tried to keep up with the beat. Megatron look confused but tried anyways. He did badly. He kept copying the others and still wasn't doing it as well as them, but it was better than the first attempt. Everyone was grinning like crazy and seemed genuinely happy. Definitely a change from his previous team. At some point, Rodimus slipped back into the room and joined them. When the final chord rung out, everyone wearily sank back into their seats.

Megatron was out of breath at the end of it. "Damn, you guys don't skip leg day around here, do you?"

"Everyday is leg day if you have anxiety!" Rodimus spoke up as he gave him a thumbs up. "Not bad Megsy. Can I call you that? I'm calling you that. Maybe you do have a place on the team. Maybe. The jury is still out for the guys in the hall."

"Speaking of guys in the hall, I present the Chairbot 5000." Whirl cackled as he rode in on the drive train that had a chair haphazardly ziptied to it.

Magnus glanced over to Ratchet, "Any opinion on how safe that is?"

"No comment."

"Whirl! Get off the robot before it breaks!" Perceptor shouted from the doorway.

"What's the worst that happen? I crack the wheels? I bend the chassis?" Whirl said as he drove himself in circles.

"Whirl, this is why I have to spend twice as much time fundraising than I should." Cyclonus grumbled.

"You mean you have to ask your rich relatives for more money?"

"Yes. And you all should be grateful that I bother asking them in the first place. Now, I'm going to call them in advance, because I don't see this ending well" Cyclonus scowled as he left the room to make the call.

"Uh, guys, I might only be on outreach, but I don't think the robot should be smoking." Drift hesitantly stated. One of the motors was giving off smoke and two of the wheels started to slow down. Whirl jumped off the chair as a second motor started to smolder.

"This is why we can't have nice things!" Nautica cried as she grabbed a pair of scissors off the front desk and started cutting the chair off the drive train. A third motor started smoking as she yanked it off and Brainstorm reached in to flip the kill switch. 

"Well, it could have been worse. All four motors could have burnt out?" Rodimus shrugged as he worriedly looked at the drive train.

"It is worse. All four motors are dead. At least they are the older Neos instead of the new Falcons." Brainstorm said as he started fanning the smoke away.

"Wait, four motors, all burnt out. How are the motor controllers?" Chromedome suddenly said as he looked up from his laptop.

"Just as dead." Nautica said as she poked the drive assembly with a pen.

Chromedome looked visibly distraught as he looked back down at his computer. "That means I need to program four more Spark Maxes. Give me a sec." He picked up his backpack and screamed into it for about a minute. Everyone immediately got concerned for his mental and physical wellbeing. Rewind hopped down from the top of his shelf where he was filming everything and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. The moment he stopped, he dropped his backpack next to his chair. "I'm okay, hun. I just need to take all the code I wrote for those broken ones, rewrite it in Java BECAUSE WE SWITCHED TO THAT FROM PYTHON, compile it, look for the missing semicolon, have a mental breakdown, and then push the code into the new Maxes. No biggie." He explained as he placed his hand on Rewind's "Just make sure you leave that out of the weekly vlog, okay?"

"Of course. I'll include only the good parts of the meeting. So, about five minutes of footage." Rewind said as he flipped through his saved videos.

"Alright. You can go to back to your perch. Do you need help climbing to the top?" Chromedome asked as he opened Notepad++.

"Of course not." he said as he set his camera on the highest shelf he could reach and climbed up it. Chromedome pulled out another energy drink, chugged it, and began a cautionary compiling. It failed, and he died a little bit inside.

Megatron was watching all of this from the back of the room, and his dreams of winning a competition immediately went down the drain. Magnus stepped around the build team performing emergency repairs on the robot and went over to Megatron. "So, do you still want to be on the team?" he asked.

"In the condition this team is in, I have no choice but to stay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read this and I apologize for not updating for half a year! Fun fact, the thing with the motors burning out from a chairbot actually did happen to my team and it was the first and only time we have done so! Our mentors had Regrets™ that day.


	3. PR is Trying its Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drift hosts the first PR centric meeting of the season and it goes as well as you'd expect.  
> (10 weeks until the first competition)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all, I'm actually writing about stuff I completely understand! All of the technical stuff I bs from info I find on team forums. But since I'm one of two PR leads, I at least know things, vaguely. Little note, this isn't completely accurate. A lot of it has been dramatized because I don't think people want to read about a small group of teens writing an essay in complete silence. But, this is for fun. So, enjoy!

"Okay guys, welcome to the first official PR meeting of the year. Is everyone excited for this year?" Drift asked the gaggle of students occupying the classroom. The room went completely silent. "Wow. Great enthusiasm. Anyways! Let's do some introductions first. So, I'm going to pass around this stapler," he took a stapler from off the teacher's desk, "and when you get it, announce your name and your position on the team. I'll start: Hi, my name's Drift and I am the PR subteam captain." Drift tossed the stapler over to Rodimus who nearly tipped backwards in an attempt to catch it.

"You guys should already know me. I'm Rodimus, team captain, and I pretty much do anything that needs done." Rodimus said as he lobbed the stapler over to Magnus.

"I'm Ultra Magnus. I am in charge of organizing all the electrical components on the robot and I do the majority of the financial management. Additionally, I will write and give the Chairman's Presentation, if we do it this year," he gently handed it off to Thunderclash.

"I'm Thunderclash, and I'm the director of outreach." He passed the stapler to Riptide as Rodimus mumbled under his breath.

"I'm Riptide and I don't know what this is. I thought this was a swim meet. But since I'm here, I'm now a member. That's how it works, right?"

"Just try your best, man. Hi everyone! I'm Tailgate and I'm in charge of team spirit! If anyone has any recommendations, please tell me them. We need to raise our morale."

"I'm Cyclonus. Business and fundraising."

"I'm Rewind and I'm the team's media guy. Everything you say or do gets recorded."

"Make sure you get my good side, Rewind. I'm Sunstreaker and I do all the graphic design."

"I'm Toaster and I don't know why I'm here. I just bring snacks." he handed it over to the new girl at the meeting.

"Hi guys, I'm Velocity and it is my first time attending a PR meeting." she stood up and gave a friendly wave, "I'm usually just a backup safety captain for the pits. But, I'm working as the safety outreach designer this year due to Pharma and Ambulon's - unfortunate accident." she said, hesitating at the last part. "So, I'll be working on the safety manual and video this year."

"It's good to finally see you here, Velocity. I hope you can keep up with all the work you will have to catch up on." Drift said as he pulled out some pamphlets and began passing them out. They were bright red and yellow and were advertising the team itself. "As you can tell, this is the quality of our PR last year. I would bring up our website, but it looks even worse than these."

"I tried my best with what I had! We don't even have a logo." Sunstreaker defended the bad quality content.

"That was last year. This year, we have to be better. At everything. I don't like spreading bad vibes. But everything relating to PR was subpar. Except for the fundraising and safety. Luckily, Cyclonus has already gotten us a small budget. Unfortunately, Ambulon is still in the hospital, so Velocity will have to take the reins." Velocity seemed to shrink down into her seat. "But don't worry, we will still call us and give us advice."

"Well as spirit lead, I think we should have some sort of official uniform. Now, I know we can't afford something like jumpsuits, but we should at least have something semiformal that we can wear." Tailgate explained.

"Good idea, TG. Anyone care to expand on this idea?" Drift gestured to everyone else to continue.

"Polo shirts. They're simple and can be worn officially and unofficially." Sunstreaker suggested.

"We don't have the money for those. We could get them, everyone would have to pay for their own." Cyclonus explained.

"We can do that. I can tell the team and the next full meeting." Rodimus stated as he wrote it in his notebook.

"See guys, this is teamwork! We need to do more things like this. What else is on the agenda?" Drift asked the team.

"Uhh, GoBabyGo is coming up again. It would be a wonderful opportunity if we could do it this year. With the amount of members we have on the team, we could assemble at least five electric wheelchair kits." Thunderclash stated as he gestured to the calendar on the wall.

"I can ask Chromedome and see if he'd be up to doing some programming for one of the custom wheelchairs. That way we don't just have to go with a standard kit." Rewind said.

"It would garner us some good PR. And I put the cost of doing it in the budget this year." Magnus added.

"No one else gets a say in this. We're doing it. Let's help some kids. When is it?" Rodimus said as he walked over to the calendar with a dry erase marker.

"Two weeks from now at Paradron High. I'll email Lifeline and register our team." Thunderclash stated as he pulled out his laptop. Rodimus wrote the date on the calendar and threw the marker at Drift.

"Great! Next topic: Cyclonus, how can the team contribute to our fundraising effort?" Drift asked as he pointed the marker at him.

"We will not be doing cold calls again this year. The amount of money we raised from it didn't justify the amount of time spent doing it. Also, no one hear knows proper phone call etiquette." Cyclonus stated. The gang let out a collective sigh of relief. "We will focus on emails and door to door soliciting."

"Is it safe for groups of teenagers to walk from business to business alone?" Tailgate asked.

"You think I know the answer to that? Besides, who'd be foolish enough to accost a group of teenagers? Don't answer that." he held up his hand when it looked like someone was getting ready to reply, "These strategies have proven effective in the past, so we must merely continue them."

"Thank you for the plan. If anyone else has anything to say, do it now before the meeting adjourns." Magnus addressed the team.

"Uh, one question. What is this?" Riptide piped up.

"This is the Robotics team. You know, what it said on the big sign on the door." Rodimus said.

"Wait, there was a sign?" Riptide asked.

"Oh my- look, I have a feeling you have no idea what you are doing all the time. So just come back here next week, I officially dub you a Lost Lighter." Rodimus instructed, exasperated.

"Wait, so if you guys build robots, can any of them survive in water?" Riptide asked.

Ultra Magnus gave an almighty sigh as he placed his head in his hands. "That is it! The meeting is over. Everybody go home!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's some information about the GoBabyGo I mentioned: https://varietykc.org/project/go-baby-go/ I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to help them out. Thank you for reading! If you have any questions about anything you have read, feel free to ask. <3


End file.
